Press Statement  AG Campbell Secures Final Victory In Triumph Foods Lawsuit

BOSTON — Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell issued the following statement after the Supreme Court of the United States declined to review a lower court’s decision upholding Massachusetts’s Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act, otherwise known as Question 3, which was overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2016. 

“This decision marks the end of a years-long challenge to animal welfare protections and Massachusetts’s ability to regulate its own commerce. This victory affirms the will of Massachusetts residents, who voted overwhelmingly to support this law in 2016, to ensure more humane standards and stronger consumer protections,” said AG Campbell.  

Massachusetts’s Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act bans the sale within Massachusetts of pork products derived from pigs confined in inhumane gestation crates. Following a challenge brought by out-of-state pork producers, both the District Court and the First Circuit upheld Massachusetts’s authority to enforce these standards. The plaintiffs then sought review by the Supreme Court, which declined to take up the case – bringing this challenge to a close and preserving Massachusetts’s law.